Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama film based upon the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), which was written by Arthur Schnitzler. The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long, sexually charged adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy of an underground cult.

The film appeared on July 16, 1999, to generally positive critical reaction.

Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:23 am

Dr. Lecter

You must have big rats

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pmPosts: 92095Location: Bonn, Germany

B

Weird movie...Definitely not the best by Kubrick, but not bad either. The acting is decent most of the time, the storyline is sometimes hard to follow and some scenes appear rather gratuitous. Great score, though and beautifully filmed.

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i dont know, it is a very weird movie..........i didnt pay to much attention to it!...but it wasnt Bad

B-

Mon Jan 31, 2005 3:40 pm

publicenemy#1

Extraordinary

Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:25 amPosts: 15157Location: San Diego

It isn't a bad movie but I didn't enjoy it at all. At least the movie is well done.

- C

Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:41 pm

Algren

now we know

Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 9:31 pmPosts: 63742

EyesWide Shut - B+

Very good movie. Of course Tom Cruise is amazing. Kidman is fucking sexy!!!

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Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:58 pm

Alex Y.

All Star Poster

Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:47 pmPosts: 4995

A. What a criminally underated film. A lot of deep symbolic layers in the movie.

Mon Jan 31, 2005 10:16 pm

baumer72

Mod Team Leader

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:00 pmPosts: 7087Location: Crystal Lake

Sex can sometimes make us do really strange things. You see it all the time. You are at a nightclub, there, surrounding you are 100's of scantily clad beautiful women. And you may be 25 years old and you have had sex 100's of times in your life time but the sight of those women make you act like you have never seen a breast before. Never experienced the raw energy of lust, even though you may be dating a beautiful woman. And then sometimes the question arises. Should I? Could I? Is it all worth it? Tough questions. Love is usually described as the one thing in this life that can make a strong man weak and a rich man poor. But if that is true about love, then what can be said about sex? Because there are times when sex can be more powerful than love.

Eyes Wide Shut has a great time exploring that very notion. It examines what the physical pleasures of the naked body can have on people, not just married people, but people in general. It looks at what happens when one is tempted. And it also shows what it is that some people think but rarely ever express. And when it is expressed in here, a man's jealousy almost destroys not only his marriage, but his life. And on that psychological level, EWS is a brilliant film. The first third of the film was mesmerizing. The dialogue and scenes were so perfect that you could feel yourself remembering situations that were simialr to the ones in the film.

Nicole Kidman plays Alice. Cruise plays Bill. They are a married couple and they seem fairly comfortable in their marriage. But then one night after a huge party where they were both propositioned for sex by other people, they get a little high and Alice begins quizzing Bill about just how far he wanted to go with the two women that were hitting on him at the party. It is here that the film hits its best notes. The dialogue is perfect. You can see how Alice is playing with Bill's words, twisting them and throwing them back in his face. And then just when it seems that Bill has said the right words to alleviate the tension, Alice reveals that there was a time a year back when she felt that she wanted to have an affair, just a one nighter, but an affair none the less, with some naval officer that was staying in the same hotel as they were. She graphically tells her husband how she was thinking of the other man while they were making love that afternoon. And I felt for Bill. Just as any man would feel for another man in that same spot. Then in the next 24 hours Bill goes on this labryinthian odyssey. He refuses sex a few times from willing women and then he gets into some secret orgy and probably almost loses his life. Now the movie starts getting clouded and grainy. It is still enjoyable to a certain degree but it is getting kind of weird. By the time the third act gets going and Cruise and Sydney Pollack do their thing, it is still interesting. But that is where the movie stops being a great film. Because when Bill and Alice have their talk at the end, I wanted more. I wanted to feel more . I wanted Bill to not only tell Alice everything but to show her and tell her how much she hurt him. But he doesn't. The only emotion he shows is sadness, but not at what his wife has done to him but because of what he has witnessed. It is so unfortunate that the film wasn't concluded with more energy because EWS has many things to say but just no way of ending them. It just sort of leaves the viewer hanging.

I loved the way this film looked. It made me feel like I was watching The Shining or A Clockwork Orange. It had that 70's feel to it. And as I have said, it was a good film, with so much energy and lots of insight to sex and infidelity and love and lust, but it just left me hollow at the end. And that is a shame, because it was so bright, so ambitious, so witty and so sexy. But the end just feels not so bright, not so ambitious, a little dull but still sexy. It is worth seeing.

_________________Brick Tamland: Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident.
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Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:03 pm

Dr. Lecter

You must have big rats

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pmPosts: 92095Location: Bonn, Germany

Actually, after having read the novel and rewatching the movie, I started liking it a little more than before. It is a pretty decent adaptation.

_________________The greatest thing on earth is to love and to be loved in return!

Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:55 am

Libs

Sbil

Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:38 pmPosts: 48349Location: Multi-tasking

I thought this was a colossal misfire. It was technically well-made, but it felt so empty and soulless. Nicole Kidman was terrific, though. C-

Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:28 am

FILMO

The Original

Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:19 amPosts: 9808Location: Suisse

Technically well made...but do we really have sit through 155 min to get the "shocking" message that humans are also only biological beings. uhhh secret sex parties. Humans have such a low level of culture...simple bland to watch them....ihhhhhhh!
WTF?You know what? Reading loyals gangbang report was way more intresting.

Not a disaster but actually also not that well

6/10

Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:55 pm

Johnny Dollar

The Lubitsch Touch

Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:48 pmPosts: 11019

The debate never seems to end. Is this good? Bad? Clearly the former. I continue to watch and be intrigued by it. The orgy scene (save the laughable CGI) is one of the most bravura sequences Kubrick ever put to film.

I can't find my original review, but suffice it to say that there is plenty of depth in this movie on the nature of relationships and jealousy that will only reveal itself to one who has sufficient depth and breadth of experience in long-term lovin' -- watch it again when your 40 and tell me it's meaningless...

Mon Jan 08, 2007 8:16 pm

Heinrich Himmler

Cream of the Crop

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 5:17 pmPosts: 2715Location: Berlin, Germania

its great, one of the best films of the decade.

Mon Jan 08, 2007 9:04 pm

kypade

Kypade

Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:53 pmPosts: 7908

Re: Eyes Wide Shut

omg

Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:43 am

Dr. Lecter

You must have big rats

Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pmPosts: 92095Location: Bonn, Germany

Re: Eyes Wide Shut

Anyone here read Schnitzler's Traumnovelle?

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